AROUND THE WORLD.

2,000 pose nude for street photograph

MONTREAL, CANADA — More than 2,000 people posed naked in downtown Montreal on Saturday for an American artist staging a nude group shoot with the consent of local authorities.

New York-based Spencer Tunick, 34, who specializes in photographing nude crowds in urban centers, had expected no more than 300 people to answer his call for volunteers for photographs that will be featured next month at Montreal's Museum of Contemporary Arts.

"This was the easiest performance of this scale that I have done," an ecstatic Tunick said outside Montreal's Place des Arts, where the unclothed participants lay on the ground to be photographed in 55-degree weather.

The 50-minute session was supervised by police, who set up a security perimeter to keep clothed bystanders away.